The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-11
DUNGEON TO PALACE.
COFFIN AND HEARSE BLOCK THE
WAY OUT OF THE WORLD.

S@~~
after.
THE HAMPToNs, July 10.-The Brooklyn
Tabernacle being closed for enlargement,
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., pastor,
spends his first Sabbath away from his
flock the present season, at this summer
home. His subject for to-day was: "From
Dungeon to Palace" and his text: ''The
time of my departure is at hand. I'll Tim
othy iv., g.
The way out of this world is so blocked
up with coffin and hearse, and undertaker's
spade and screwdriver, that the Christian
can hardly think as he ought of the most
cheerful passage in all his history. We
hang black instead of white over the place
where the good man gets his last victory.
We stand weeping over a heap of chains
which the freed soul has shaken off, and we
say: Poor mani What pity it was he
had to come to this!' Come to what? By
the time the people have assembled at the
Obsequies, that man has been three days so
happy that all the joy of earth accumulated
would be wretchedneSs beside it, and he
might better weep over you because
you have to stay, than you weep over him
because he has to 60 1t is a
fortunate thing that good man does not
have to wait to see his own obsequieS, they
would be SO discordant with his own expe-
rience. If the Israelites should go back to
Egypt and mourn over the brick-kilns they
once left, they would not be any more silly
than that Christian who should forsake
heaven and come down and mourn because
he had to leave this world. Our ideas of
the Christians death are morbid and sckly
We look upon it as a dark hole in which
man stumbles when his breath gives out
This whole subject is OdorouS with varnish
and disinfectants, instead of being sweet
with mignonette. Paul, in my text, takes
that great clod of a word DEATH and
throws it away, and speaks of his ''de-
parturen-a beautiful, bright, suggestive
word, descriptive of every Christians re-
lease.
Now, departure implies starting place
and place of destination. When Paul left
this world, what was the starting point?
1t was "a scene of great physical distress
1t was the Tullianum, the lower dungeon of
the Mamertine prison. The top dungeon
was bad enough, it having no means of
ingreSS or egress but through an opening in
the top. Through that the prisoner was
lowered, and through that came all the food.
and air, and light received. 1t was terri
bic place, that upper dungeon; but the Tul-
lianum was the lower dungeon, and that
was still more wretched, the only light and
the only air coming through the roof, and
that roof the floor of the upper dungeon
That was Paul's last earthly residence. 1t
was a dungeon just six feet and half high
1t was doleful place 1t had the chill of
long centuries of dampness. 1t was filthy
with the long incarcerations of miserable
wretches. 1t was there that Paul spent his
last days on earth, and it is there that see
him to-day, in the fearful dungeon, shiver-
ing, blue with the cold, waiting for that old
overcoat which he had sent for up to Troas,
and which they had not yet sent down, not
withstanding he had written for it.
Ii some skillful surgeon should go into
that dungeon where Paul is incarcerated
We might find out what are the prospects of
Pauls living through the rough imprlson-
m9nt. In the first place, he is an old man,
only two years short of seventy. At that
very time when he most needs the warmth
and the sunlight and the fresh air, he is shut
out from the sun What are those scars
on his ankles! Why, those were gotten
when he was fast, his feet in the stocks
Every time he turned the flesh on his ankles
started What are those scars on his back?
You know he was whipped five times, each
time getting thirty-nine strokeS-One hun
dred and ninety-flve bruises on the back
count them made by the Jews with rods of
elmwoOd, each one of the one hundred and
nineUy-ilve strokes bringing the blood. Look
at Paul's face and look at his arms Where
did he get those bruises! | think it was
when he was struggling ashore amidst the
shivered timbers of the shipwreck. | see a
cash in Paul'S side. Where did he get thatg
/ think he got that in the tussle with high
waymen, for he had been in peril of rob
bers, and he had money of his own. He was
a mechanic as well as an apostle, and think
the tents he made were as good as his ser
mons.
There is a wanness about Pauls looks.
What makes that: think a part of that
came from the fact that he was for twenty
four hours on plank i'll the Mediterranean
sea, suffering terribly, before he was res
cued; for ne says positively: 81 was a night
and a day in the deep Oh, worn out,
emaciatei old man! surely you must be
melancholy; no constitution could endure
this and be cheerful But press my way
through the prison until | come up close to
where h Is, and by the faint light that
streams through the opening / see on his
face supernatural joy, and bow before
him and | say: aged man, how can you
keep cheerful amidst all this gloom" His
voice startles the darkness of the place as ho
cries out: 81 am now ready 10 be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand y
Hari what is that shutiiing of feet in the
upper dungeon! Why, Paul has an invita-
ton to banquet, and he is gong to dine
to-day with the king. Those shutting fcct
are the feet of the executionars They come
and they cry down through the hole
of the dungeon: Hurry mp, old man.
Come, now; get yourself ready" Why,
Paul was ready. He had nothing 30 pack
up. He had no baggage to take. He had
been ready good while | see him rising
up and Strengthening out his stiifened limbs,
and pushing back his white hair from his
creviced forehead, and see him looking up
through the hole in the roof of the dungeon
into the face of his eXecutioner, and hear
him say: 81 am now ready to be offered
and the time of my departure Is at hand 4"
Then they lift him out of the dungeon, and
they start with him to the place of execu-
tion. They say: Hurry along, old man,
or you win feel the weight of our spear.
Hurry along" "How far isit, says Paul, "wo
have to traVelp "Three miles" Three miles
is good way for an old man TO travel after
he has been whipped and crippled with mail
treatment. Butthey soon get to the place of
execution-AcqmB Salvia--and he Is faS
tened to the pillar OF martyrdom. 1t does
not take any strength to tie him fast. He
makes no resistance y Paul why not
strike for your lifes You haze a great
many friends here. With that withered
hand Just launch the thunderbolt Of the peo-
pie upon those infamous soldiers. MOI!
Paul was not going 10 interfere with his
own coronation. He was too glad to go.
| see him looking up in the face of his exc
cutioner, and, as the grim official draws the
sword, Paul calmly says: Il am now ready
10 be offered, and the time Of my departure
Ia nj hand Ruf I mt my hand oypf my